THEO PRINSLOO Companies can use the system to meet the changing demands of their market with high accuracy, increasing agility and reducing waste
Master data quality company Pilog has developed a content-as-a-service (CaaS) offering for procurement management using its detailed item description repository and international standards-based methods developed over 20 years.
This will enable companies and departments to quickly and easily access existing high-quality content or create their own content according to proven structures and standards. This enables them to have total control over procurement and use of each item managed through their in-house systems, explains Pilog Russia head of consulting Theo Prinsloo.
The system uses Pilog’s preferred ontology, which meets ISO 8000 data quality standards, and its large database of clean master data distributed through a cloud platform, explains Pilog Global chairperson Dr Salomon de Jager.
By contrast, traditional data cleansing initiatives and management software implementation projects could take months or years to finalise, but this system provides clients with a low-cost catalogue and governance tool that can be used immediately. When they enter new items into their catalogues, the system will provide ISO 8000-standards-based templates to ensure that they create similar high-quality reference data, notes Prinsloo.
The benefit of the system is twofold, because companies can immediately improve the quality of data underpinning much of their procurement systems, and the service exposes them to the value of high-quality enterprise data, as well as how these are created and used, he adds.
“The idea [behind the CaaS platform] was to allow our clients quick and easy access to the existing master data content that we have. The subscription model also means that there is no capital expenditure, with clients paying for what they use.”
A key benefit of the system is that companies can use it to meet the changing demands of their market with high accuracy, increasing their agility while reducing lost sales opportunities and waste. It also enables companies to implement sustainability initiatives, as sustainability metrics can be applied to all items’ data.
The quality and standardisation of the data enable clients’ systems to interact with a large range of suppliers and manufacturers, as the interchangeability of the data across industries and supply chains is easy and accurate. This means that the correct items and services are procured even in complex and global supply chains.
The next potential stage of the CaaS platform is to include language translation, which enables a company to interact with international suppliers without the risk of language differences causing errors, adds Prinsloo.
Over the medium-term horizon, he says, Pilog wants to extend the system to other domains of industry and commerce, including retail, online retail and consumer businesses, to improve accuracy and management.
The firm is also considering the provision of data management as a service, which will enable clients to use Pilog’s services to improve the quality of their data and master data systems.